Impact assessment for the improved four boundary conditions (at bed, free-surface, land-boundary and offshore-boundary) on coastal hydrodynamics and particulate transport

The FIELD_AC project aims at providing an improved operational service for coastal areas and at generating added value for shelf and regional scale predictions. Coastal-zone oceanographic predictions seldom appraise the land discharge as a boundary condition. River fluxes are sometimes considered, but neglecting their 3D character, while the "distributed" continental run-off is not taken into consideration. Moreover, many coastal scale processes, particularly those relevant in geographically restricted domains (coast with harbors or river mouth areas), are not well parametrized in present simulations.Work package 3 dedicated to Boundary Fluxes aims to establish and use the best possible boundary conditions for coastal water quality modelling. On this scale, all boundaries become important. For the land boundary side the needed products are distributed and point wise run-off both quantitatively and qualitatively. For the offshore boundary condition, 3D current, water quality field, and wave spectra will be used. For the atmospheric boundary, products from local scale meteorological models (wind, atmospheric pressure and rainfall) are needed. For the seabed, boundary information on sediment composition, bedforms and bathymetry and bio-geo-chemical parameters is essential.This report addresses the impact assessment for improvements in the four boundary conditions (boundary fluxes from land, free-surface boundary condition, seabed boundary condition and open boundary fluxes) on coastal hydrodynamics and particulate transport. The description of the improved four boundary conditions is followed by examples of concrete impact assessment of the theory into the Catalan coast, Liverpool Bay, German Bight and Gulf of Venice

Sméagol: un projecte de desenvolupament de programari per introduir el treball col.laboratiu entre els TIC de la UPC

Projecte presentat al 3r Premi a la Qualitat de la Gestió Universitària, convocat pel Consell Social de la UP

Treatment of Diabetes and Long-Term Survival After Insulin and Glucokinase Gene Therapy

Diabetes is associated with severe secondary complications, largely caused by poor glycemic control. Treatment with exogenous insulin fails to prevent these complications completely, leading to significant morbidity and mortality. We previously demonstrated that it is possible to generate a "glucose sensor" in skeletal muscle through coexpression of glucokinase and insulin, increasing glucose uptake and correcting hyperglycemia in diabetic mice. Here, we demonstrate long-term efficacy of this approach in a large animal model of diabetes. A one-time intramuscular administration of adeno-associated viral vectors of serotype 1 encoding for glucokinase and insulin in diabetic dogs resulted in normalization of fasting glycemia, accelerated disposal of glucose after oral challenge, and no episodes of hypoglycemia during exercise for >4 years after gene transfer. This was associated with recovery of body weight, reduced glycosylated plasma proteins levels, and long-term survival without secondary complications. Conversely, exogenous insulin or gene transfer for insulin or glucokinase alone failed to achieve complete correction of diabetes, indicating that the synergistic action of insulin and glucokinase is needed for full therapeutic effect. This study provides the first proof-of-concept in a large animal model for a gene transfer approach to treat diabetes

Contribution of mechanical dispersion of vapor to soil evaporation

10.1002/wrcr.2010

Continuous droplets' charge method for the Lagrangian simulation of electrostatic sprays

10.1016/j.elstat.2014.06.011A main drawback of classical simulation of electrostatic sprays based on the Lagrangian description of droplet trajectories is the large number of droplet-to-droplet electrical interactions that must be computed. We present and assess a new methodology in which some of these interactions are computed using a mean electrical field due to the droplets space charge considered as a continuum. This method has been applied to two systems, comprising 26000 droplets and 3500 droplets, resulting in 112 and 9 times faster computation, without loosing accuracy, as demonstrated in the predictions of impinging flux, droplet number density, and local droplet diameter

Efficient Lagrangian simulation of electrospray droplets dynamics

10.1016/j.jaerosci.2012.01.001Tracking the trajectories of individual droplets in Lagrangian numerical simulations of electrosprays involves a large number of computations, due to the calculation of the electrostatic repulsion force between droplets (space charge force). Two strategies are proposed in this study to reduce such number while preserving accuracy. In one strategy, the force contribution from distant droplets is simplified by replacing the droplet charges belonging to small volumes or cells within the spray with a single charge per cell located at the cell's center-of-charge. In the other strategy, the integration of the droplets' motion in different axial regions of the spray is carried out using two very different time steps, using higher time resolution where the electrical force variation sensed by the droplets is larger. With these methods the CPU time was shortened by a factor of 39 (from 1658 to 42. h), in a simulation of an electrospray characterized by a count mean diameter (CMD) of 8.84µm and around 26,000 droplets in the steady state. In another spray, comprising about 3400 droplets (CMD=32µm), the CPU time was reduced by a factor of 4.4. In this case, the CPU reduction is smaller because the proposed methodologies become less efficient with a smaller number of droplets. This study is also concerned with the selection of a proper integration time step. We show that an acceptable upper bound to the time step is based on the proper description of numerical collisions between electrospray droplets. Interestingly, in both systems simulated, a similar maximum acceptable time step is found (2µs)

Influence of sunflower oil on the biodegradation of creosote pahs by mycobacterium sp strain cp1

2 pages, 3 references. Es el Special Abstract [P-E.165] de la referida revista.PAHs are pollutants of concern due to their toxicity and environmental persistence, thus developed countries have adopted specific regulations to reinforce the prevention of soil contamination and the remediation of existing polluted sites. Efficacy of bioremediation technologies is usually limited by the low bioavailability of PAHs. Vegetable oils have been proved to be effective to treat PAHpolluted soils when used as cleaning agents (Gong et al., 2005). In addition, it has been demonstrated that they increase PAH bioavailability (Pannu et al., 2003).Peer reviewe